


Insomnia and the Daleks

by DBC_82



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Ace vs the Daleks again, Classic Doctor Who References, Classic Who Companions Are Awesome, Closure, Danger, Doctor Who Feels, Don't Have to Know Classic Doctor Who, Gen, Insomnia, Interfering TARDIS, Meddling TARDIS, Sentient TARDIS, Serial: s148 Remembrance of the Daleks, Seventh Doctor Era, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29701692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DBC_82/pseuds/DBC_82
Summary: Ace is safely fast asleep onboard the TARDIS but also fighting for her life against a Dalek attack squad, is this just a nightmare she can't seem to wake up from or something more sinister? The Doctor would be the person to ask if she could only stay awake long enough to find him.
Relationships: Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Insomnia and the Daleks

The empty warehouse was crumbling, dust eddies danced in the beams of afternoon sunlight that fell in long shards from the dirty perspex panels in the ceiling and the concrete floor was cracked and mossy. Ace kicked a brick with the steel toe of her Doc Marten and listened happily to the clattering noise it made as it bounced off one of the solid brick pillars that stretched up to support the flimsy looking roof above her. This place was too quiet by half. Not creepy, just dull. Perhaps the Doctor was wrong and there was nothing more sinister going on here than pigeons in the rafters. 

Even as she pondered the improbable she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Ace froze, knowing that something was wrong even before she knew what. 

Registering a flash of light in her peripheral vision she turned to see three Daleks materialise in close proximity on a patch of molding concrete floor, their eyestalks and gunsticks twitching ominously. 

'Exterminate!' came the mad, grating voice she knew all too well. 

She made for the doorway at the far end of the warehouse but blaster fire forced her to take cover behind the solid brickwork of the nearest pillar. Taking a deep breath she risked a quick glance around the side.

The Daleks were holding their position in a three-pronged attack formation. Somewhere at the back of her mind she'd noticed the white and gold livery that marked them out as Skarosian Daleks of the Third Imperium and she had a sudden flashback to her desperate flight through Coal Hill School. 

Hope I won’t have to jump through a window again, she thought. 

A series of projected energy bolts carved a hole in the opposite wall of the warehouse, clipping the edge of the pillar and sending fragments of super-heated brick flying in her direction. Fighting the urge to run she considered her options. 

Come on Ace, she told herself, think fast and think Shoreditch style, time was against her but what else was new. Finding herself in a tricky situation was business as usual, right? Not for the first time she wondered what the Doctor would do. No baseball bat and no Nitro-9 either but the Professor would never use a weapon anyway, not if he could help it. 

A distraction would do nicely though. 

'You are an enemy of the Daleks!' 

A light fixture somewhere overhead exploded noisily in a shower of sparks and she ducked, shaking the glass fragments from her hair and jacket. Whilst crouching she noticed the chunk of brick she’d been kicking idly around the warehouse lying only an arm's reach away. Without thinking she reached out and grabbed it. 

With her heart still hammering in her chest she watched the streaks of energy soar past her and explode against the dirty whitewashed wall opposite. There was an exit at the end of the warehouse, a shattered internal door that led to a corridor offering greater cover and the chance of escape. 

Hefting the brick in her hand she bowled it hard overarm toward the solitary unbroken window in the far corner of the warehouse, waited for the sound of glass shattering and bolted for the doorway. 

****** 

Ace awoke with a yell lying in an ungainly pile on her bedroom floor, her heart pounding and her nightie damp with sweat. Taking stock of her surroundings she saw that her duvet was in a knotted tangle on the bed. The roundels on the walls were dimmed to a dull glow meaning they were idling in the vortex and it was way past bedtime. Apart from her shallow breathing and the comforting low hum of the TARDIS the time machine was otherwise quiet. 

That was one hell of a dream, she thought to herself, though even as she tried to remember the details it began to fade. Shaking her head she stood up and perched on the edge of her bed. She yawned, the sensible thing to do would be to just go back to bed but sleep seemed like an impossibility. Anyway what she really felt like doing was going to find the Doctor. She pulled on an old flannel dressing gown, tied her hair into a ponytail in front of the heavy baroque mirror propped in the corner of her bedroom and set off. 

The control room was empty, the console silent and still. She hadn't expected to find him there but it was always worth checking. He'd probably already disappeared into his mysterious bedroom for another sleepless night spent plotting. Her friend had seemed evasive recently, landing at random but never really explaining why they were where they were or what it was they were supposed to be doing there. They'd visited the ice marshes of Ustinov Prime, the Ashippun River in Nineteenth Century Wisconsin and the Sacred Hand of Nazima on the Hereditary Mountain of Solemn Beautificence but nothing seemed to hold the odd little Time Lord's attention. The ice marshes had been the worst, they'd stood on a jetty for at least an hour, watching small mollusc like creatures floundering in the shallows. When Ace had complained the Doctor had insisted they were noble and then fallen silent again. 

In the meantime they idled in the void and on those few occasions they crossed paths he'd either shuffled off making apologetic excuses or embarked on a conversation so bewilderingly complex that she'd eventually got bored of asking questions and drifted off with the vague promise that they'd see each other later. He'd slipped into these existential funks before. She’d once found him of an evening sat on a lounger by the swimming pool, despondently munching his way through a packet of custard creams. 

She considered the bland white corridor in front of her. It was one of those nights where cocoa and a chat just wouldn't cut it. After a brief game of Eeny meeny miny moe she chose a path at random and set off in search of the library, though after several minutes searching she realised that like the Doctor it was noticeable by its absence. Failing that she went looking for the Arboretum but again it seemed as though the TARDIS was playing tricks on her, moving rooms around for its own amusement. 

Fine, I can deal with this, she thought. Sentient symbiotic time machines are all very well but there's no getting one past the girl from Perivale. 

Debating whether it was worth abandoning her search in order to track down the laboratory so she could continue tinkering with her latest batch of Nitro-9 she turned a corner and found the Doctor blocking her path. 

'What's your opinion of Hegel's unity of opposites?' he asked, handing her a cup of coffee and a custard cream. 

****** 

As she ran for the doorway Ace noticed several things simultaneously; how the adrenalin surged through her system making it seem as though time was passing more slowly, the grating voices of the Dalek attack squad as they screamed for her death, the stink of ozone from the the bolts of energy that skimmed past her. Above the noise of the Daleks she was screaming too, a war cry of fear, rage and defiance. If she could shout as loud as they could then they'd have no victory at all and if she was going to die in this forgotten corner of twentieth-century London she'd go out screaming to her last breath. 

Suddenly she was skidding on the dust and rubble of the doorway. She pulled herself upright, digging her fingers into the ancient brickwork as she took a moment to catch her breath. Instinct and luck meant she'd reached her escape route unscathed but she was far from safe. Pushing herself off from the wall she took off down the corridor away from the immediate threat. Ace knew from experience the Daleks weren't going to abandon their pursuit and all she could do was put as much distance between herself and her opponents as possible.

Hopefully that would give her enough time to think up a plan. Either that or the Doctor would turn up in the nick of time, like he always did.

Sliding round a corner at full speed she almost slammed into the solid polycarbide bulk of an Imperial Dalek bearing down on her. 

'Exterminate!' 

It was so close she could see her warped reflection in the smooth gold domes that studded its lower half. I always meant to ask the Doctor what those bumps were for, she thought to herself dumbly. Perhaps I won't ever get the chance. 

****** 

'So,' the Doctor said finally as they settled into the comfy armchairs of the Observatory, 'What seems to be the problem?' 

Ace shook her head in confusion and looked down into the cup of coffee she was holding. Hadn't she just been somewhere else facing down a squadron of Daleks in a warehouse? It felt again like a very vivid dream but she couldn't have been asleep as she also remembered walking through the TARDIS with the Doctor discussing non-duality and dialectics. Though hadn't she also been in a warehouse on twentieth century Earth? 

She frowned, blew on her drink and took a tentative sip. 'What makes you think there's a problem?' 

The Doctor said nothing and looked at her over the rim of his mug, his dark eyes wide and twinkling in the dim light. She held the Doctor's gaze for as long as she was able to, despite her best efforts he'd always been able to outstare her. 

'Couldn’t sleep,’ she said simply. ‘I- I had a bad dream,' she said eventually, wincing at how childish it sounded when said aloud. The Doctor didn't so much as raise an eyebrow, she figured he probably knew all there was worth knowing about bad dreams. 

‘Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death,' he said eventually, 'Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath!’ 

Deciding that discussing her insomnia while quoting gloomy passages of Shakespeare was unlikely to lift him out of his mood she quickly changed the subject. 

'I’ve always wondered who even gets to decide when its night time anyway?' she asked. 'It's not like the TARDIS is set to Greenwich Mean Time.' 

Her friend put his mug down on a nearby table and leaned back in his armchair. 'Actually it is, I recalibrated the ship's internal chronometer when I first landed on Earth in 1963. Taking galactic drift and spatio-temporal differentials into consideration I'd say it's still accurate to at least two zeptoseconds.' 

'So there's a part of the TARDIS that is forever England?' she said with a smile, 'Wicked.' 

'Correct. Are you sure nothing else is bothering you?' 

Ace considered how best to respond, as well as being expansive and joyful the Doctor could also be prickly when it came to human emotions and it was difficult to judge how he’d respond. That said ever since Fenric she'd decided honesty was the best policy and so saying something was preferable to saying nothing. Still, she was learning that tact could sometimes be useful in these situations. 

'Thing is Professor, I was going to ask you the same question...' 

The Time Lord went quiet for some time and Ace sipped her coffee, waiting for him to respond. 

'Was it the molluscs?' he asked eventually. 

Ace smiled despite herself. 'The molluscs didn't help but at least we were out of the TARDIS for a bit. I was starting to worry about you,' she said. 

'You're right Ace, I'm sorry,' he said with a sigh. 'I've been a trifle distracted recently, no plans to play with and a few too many memories weighing on my minds, and when you've lived as long as I have that's no laughing matter. Can you ever forgive me?' 

He looked so ordinary in that moment, looking at her with a sad old frown and waiting for her to reply, that she felt her heart catch. Yes he could be a cantankerous old git sometimes but he was also her best friend in the whole universe and who knew what existential terrors it was he was wrestling with. 

'Of course I forgive you, you silly sod. Just don't go disappearing on me again eh? We're supposed to be a team.' 

'And what a team we are,' he said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. 'Now that that's settled, how about we go exploring? I've been hearing some very disturbing rumours about an archaeological dig on the Orphan Moon of Beta Osiris in the Eighth Segment of Time. It's said that-' 

****** 

Woman and warrior acknowledged each other simultaneously, adrenalin and instinct countering hatred and logic, the urge to destroy versus the will to survive. 

Without thinking Ace rolled to the side, using the confined space of the corridor to her advantage. If she could just keep the Dalek moving it wouldn't have the chance to bring its weapon to bear and she could duck through the next doorway. She realised that as plans went it was reasonably short term and would probably only buy her a few seconds at best but hey, she thought to herself, we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. 

The Dalek was still turning on the spot, it's eyestalk staring down at her malevolently. Despite the immediate danger she couldn’t shake off the uncanny feeling of Déjà vu. 

Throwing herself forward through the doorway she felt the heat of a blast strike the ground she’d previously occupied. 

'You will be exterminated!' shrieked the Dalek. 

Something about the familiarity of the situation made her think of the Doctor. Hang about, hadn't she been on board the TARDIS only moments ago? Where _was_ the Doctor? 

Shaking off her confusion she continued her desperate flight down the corridor. There was a broken hole in the wall up ahead through which daylight streamed, if she could just reach it before the Dalek got a clear shot maybe she could get away, find a weapon of some sort...

‘Exterminate.’ 

She heard the grating scream and threw herself forward as a bolt of energy passed overhead. 

Coughing up dust she hauled herself upright and counted the seconds. After the whole nasty business in Shoreditch the Doctor had told her that Dalek weapons took approximately two seconds to recharge. 

‘If you want to live,’ he’d said solemnly, ‘Count the seconds.’ 

One, she whispered to herself. Two... 

She was on her feet again but running out of corridor with no other option of escape. Something was wrong of course. The Dalek behind her was holding its position in the doorway without firing, otherwise she’d dead be already. What was it doing? 

Throwing herself through the ragged gap in the brickwork she saw blue sky and a dusting of cloud framing the form of another Dalek, its weapon already bearing down on her. 

'Do not move!'

Stumbling backwards instinctively she flattened herself against the opposite wall and stared into the eyestalk of her would be executioner. She could run again of course but there was nowhere left to run to and she was damned if she was going to die getting shot in the back by a Dalek. 

'Come on then!' She screamed. 

****** 

Quite suddenly she was back in her armchair onboard the TARDIS, an empty coffee mug on the floor by her feet and the Doctor's anxious face only inches from her own. She knew something was different this time, something was very wrong. She’d been staring death in the face but now she was back on the TARDIS, how could that be? 

'What happened?' she asked. 

'Where were you? Tell me very, very quickly,' he asked, producing a penlight from inside his jacket and shining it into her eyes. 'Your life may depend on it.' 

'I was on Earth, London I think but I don't know exactly where or when. There were Daleks! I was running for my life, and you weren't there.' 

She said the last sentence almost accusingly but even as she said the words she felt the dream slipping from her memory once again. 'What's the big panic Professor? I only fell asleep for a moment.' 

The Doctor snapped off the penlight and it disappeared back inside a pocket as he stood up and began pacing back and forth. 'That's the problem,’ he said, ‘I don't think you were asleep. Tell me everything else you remember.' 

'I don't know, just that I was trying to escape but the rest of the details are all hazy. The first time I woke up on my bedroom floor, that's why I thought it was a dream but...' 

'Yes?'

'Well I came to find you, but I think it happened again.' 

'Hmmm,' he said ominously. 'Quick, the Infirmary.' 

Without waiting for her to respond he seized her hand and pulled her from the chair. Still dazed she allowed herself to be dragged down identical roundelled corridors, now all awake and illuminated with the same diffuse light. Even as she registered her surroundings she tried to remember where she'd been and why the Doctor was so worried. Hadn't it all been a dream, or was this the dream? 

Eventually they reached the white open space of the Infirmary that Ace had only ever visited a handful of times before. Still holding her hand tightly in his own the Doctor pulled her past an array of medical equipment, some of familiar and some of it obviously alien. Ace allowed herself to be bundled into a large leatherette reclining chair that wouldn't have looked out of place in a dentist’s surgery. 

'You're not about to whip out my wisdom teeth are you?' she asked, only half-joking. 

The Doctor scurried around her making adjustments. 'The last thing you need is less wisdom,' he said, glancing up at her with a nervous smile. Once he'd finished whatever it was he'd been doing he took two adhesive sensor's and attached them gently to her temples. The cables were connected to a machine of some kind covered in blinking lights that the Doctor had wheeled over. She was used to the Doctor's ability to re-engineer technology into some strange sort of gadget when the situation required it, though they weren't normally attached to her head. 

'Will it hurt?' she asked, more confidently than she felt. 

'Not if I can help it. Ready?' 

'Well I ju-' 

'Jolly good.' 

The Doctor flipped a switch and the world went dark. 

****** 

She was surrounded. There were Daleks on all sides. 

‘Exterminate!’ 

What was it Professor Jenson had called them back in Nineteen Sixty-Three? “Tin-plated pepperpots?” She allowed herself a smile. Funny that one. She’d liked Professor Jenson. 

Ace very deliberately opened her eyes. She was brave and strong and if this was how she was going out she'd do it with her head held high and her eyes wide open. 

‘Exterminate!’ 

Strange how her last few seconds could stretch out and feel like an age. 

'Exterminate!' 

Above the grating sound of Dalek screams she heard another sound building in the background. It sounded like the grinding of ancient engines, the sound of the very fabric of reality rending apart to allow an innocuous blue police box to occupy a space in the corridor as though it had always been there. 

Ace realised she'd never seen anything more beautiful in her life. 

The door swung inward and the Doctor leaned casually out, his hat on his head and his umbrella hooked over his arm. 'Hello, hello.' 

'Well look what the cat's dragged in,' she said with a smile. 

Five Dalek eyestalks began swivelling nervously back and forth. ‘Halt. Do not move!’ 

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, his face full of thunder. 'Be quiet, sprites. Our revels now are ended. I deny you and this very existence.’ The Daleks shuffled backwards but made no further move to attack or retreat. Standing surrounded on all sides by his mortal enemies the Time Lord turned to his companion and his face softened, all the anger falling away. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked.

‘Never better thanks, just catching up with a few old mates.’ 

‘Silence. You are an enemy of the Daleks,' spat their leader. 

Her friend laughed, loud and deliberately. ‘Lucky for us that there are no Daleks here then, only the palest shades, a poor copy at best.’ 

‘You will be exterminated!’ 

‘I suppose you should be glad,' he said with a grim smile, 'They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.’ 

The Dalek attack squad began shuffling with what seemed to be anxiety. As she watched she realised that both the Daleks and the warehouse behind them were beginning to blur at the edges. 'Any time you fancy explaining I'm all ears,' she called out 

'Later,' he said abruptly, 'I have unfinished business.' 

The Doctor continued his advance. The Daleks were still screaming bloody murder but they were still gradually fading away. 

'We are such stuff as dreams are made on,' he said, raising an index finger. He touched it gently against the dome of the nearest Dalek and just like that, reality collapsed. 

****** 

Ace opened her eyes, blinking in the bright lights. 

She was lying under a crochet blanket on the chaise lounge in the TARDIS control room, somehow knowing that some hours had elapsed and that she was safe. The Doctor was sat in an armchair opposite, a battered paperback in his lap. When he saw she was awake his face broke into the most beautiful smile and she relaxed. 

'Alright Professor,’ she said with a yawn, ‘What time is it?' 

'Just a couple of zeptoseconds after morning.’ 

'No wonder I feel so refreshed,' she said pulling herself upright. 'I know this is the bit where you explain and I ask questions but is there any chance that can happen along with a cup of coffee and a couple of bacon sandwiches?' 

He produced a mug from somewhere and a foil wrapped package. 'As ever I am one step ahead of the game.' 

‘That’s a start,’ she said, gratefully accepting the steaming mug of coffee and the food. ‘So was that just a really bad dream or what? Only I'm starting to suspect I accidentally ate one of those stinky cheeses you keep in the fridge.’ 

‘I’m afraid to say I believe it was the TARDIS’s doing.’ 

Ace took a tentative sip. ‘Come again?’ 

‘The TARDIS telepathic circuits aligned with your sleep patterns and created a simulacrum in an attempt to enable you to process your experiences with the Daleks and move past them. I know it sounds unlikely but I genuinely think it was trying to help you.’ 

‘Help me? I thought I was going to die!' She thought back on the moment she'd faced down the Dalek attack squad, 'Is the TARDIS normally in the habit of scaring the living daylights out of people for its own amusements or has it made an exception for me?’ 

The Doctor put down his mug and ruffled his hair, ‘In all truth I have no idea but I think I might be to blame. The TARDIS and I linked symbiotically in a way that can’t be fully explained, only experienced. I think something to do with my recent melancholic episode might have interfered with the old girl’s logical reasoning. She’s certainly never done anything like this before.’ 

'It felt so real,’ she said incredulously.

‘Because it was,’ he said excitedly, his hands fluttering like caged birds. ‘It was all too real, had you died in the dream you could have died in real life.’ 

'Could it ever happen again?'

The Doctor shook his head, ‘I ran a diagnostic on the subroutines of the telepathic circuits as soon as I woke up and reset all the old girl's safety parameters, I'm pleased to say she's entirely herself again.’ 

‘What do you mean, as soon as you woke up?’ 

He looked at her sheepishly, ‘I took something of a risk connecting myself to your dreamscape but I had to take the chance, although it took its toll. I woke up about an hour before you did and carried you in here.’ 

Ace sat upright almost spilling her coffee in her lap. ‘Do you mean you could have died as well?’ 

‘Well I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t but I had a hunch my presence in the simulacra would destabilise it to a sufficient extent that we’d both be expelled rather than exterminated. And here we are and we are altogether, koo koo kachoo.’ 

‘You daft old bugger, you risked your life for me!’ 

‘Of course,’ the Doctor said. ‘Would you ever doubt it?’ 

‘Never. Thank you,’ she said with a shy smile. 

He leapt from his seat and began dancing around the TARDIS console, his hand finally resting lightly on the dematerialisation lever. ‘Well then, what next hmmm? There’s still that archaeological intrigue worth investigating on the moon of Beta Osiris if you’re interested? Or we could always revisit the molluscs...’ 

Ace considered the solid foil-wrapped weight of the bacon sandwiches in her hand and the state of her stomach. Once again life with the Doctor was anything but simple and here he was again trying to tempt her with the promise of intrigue, adventure and excitement. Of course it would be dangerous but then apparently even staying on the TARDIS wasn’t without its risks and if she was completely honest Ace was just itching to get back out there into the big bad universe. Though she was firmly of the opinion that no adventures should ever be embarked upon on an empty stomach, Ace reasoned that she did live on board a time machine so there would probably always be time for breakfast. 

She hastily stuffed the sandwiches in the pocket of her jacket and joined the Doctor at the console, closing her hand over his on the lever as they pulled it together. 

‘You’re on,’ she said with a smile.


End file.
